Ammunition



July 19, 1938. E, wH E 2,123,981

AMMUNITION Filed Sept, 28 35 ig. FIS

VII/II,

INVENTOR. ERNEST G. WHlPPLE- Patented July 19, 1938 -omrao STATES. PATENTOFFICE Ernest G. Whipple, Stratford, Conn, assignor e Remington Arms Company, lnc., a corporation of Delaware Application September- 28,1935, Serial No. 42,519

4 Claims. ((1102-26) -This invention relates to ammunition, particularly projectiles, and will be described with particular reference to projectiles for small arms, although it is to be understood that its desirable features may be utilized in ordnance projectiles as well.

More particularly, the invention contemplates a cartridge and a projectile of advanced and distinctive ballistic properties. While of light weight 19 and susceptible to comparatively easy manufacture from very inexpensive materials, the projectile is adapted to be propelled with great accuracy at a high velocity andpossesses great power of penetration.

15 In the use of firearms by law enforcement officers difliculties have been introduced by the use of the so-called "bullet-proof" vest. Ordinary small arms projectiles are, generally speaking, of two types; those made entirely of lead or 20 alloys consisting chiefly of lead; and those comprising a lead core encased or partly encased in a jacket of a harder metal such as an alloy of 95% copper with 5% zinc, commonly known in this art as gliding metal. Jacketed pro- 25 jectiles in general are fired with a higher velocity and have greater penetration than lead projectiles, but even jacketed projectiles cannot be fired from hand guns of the sort ordinarily used by law enforcement oflicers with suflicient veloc- 30 ity to insure penetration of bullet-proof vests.

In one aspect, the present invention contemplates a bullet or projectile capable of penetrating bullet-proof vests; however, the projectile 35 has other uses and fills other long .telt needs. For example, the demand for increased speeds and flat trajectories has led to reduction in bullet weights. The caliber (diameter) of a given bullet cannot be altered, hence with a given material weight can only be reduced by shortening and/or forming large cavities in heel and/or point. Carried beyond certain very narrow limits, these practices seriously impair accuracy.

Additional complications develop when it is neces- 45 sary to maintain a standard cartridge length.

The improved projectile is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a typical cartridge comprising a projectile or bullet embodying the present inven- 50 tion.

' Fig. 2 shows the bullet alone.

Fig. 3 is a section of one type of mushrooming bullet embodying the invention.

Fig. 4 is a section of an alternative form of 55 mushrooming bullet.

Fig. 5 shows a mushrooming bullet of the type shown in Fig. 3, after impact with a target.

It has been found that commercial or substantially pure zinc may be readily formed into bullets which may beprojected from hand guns 5 r and low-power. rifles with a much higher velocity than any previously known bullets, and that such bullets have an extraordinary penetrating power. The raw material is preferably zinc in the form of rolled rods, which rods can be secured on the market. Slugs of suitable size are made by cutting from such rods and these slugs are swaged into bullets in an ordinary bullet swaging press. It has been found that, notwithstanding the hardness of zinc, the swaging requires no more power and no heavier machinery than the usual operation of swaging jacketed bullets to shape while assembling their cores and jackets. The reason for this may be found in the low friction coeflicient of zinc with respect to steel. When such projectiles are assembled with the usual metallic cartridge components, the usual priming and the usual powder charge, and the resulting cartridge fired in an ordinary hand gun or rifle, the bullet is projected with a very high velocity and has an extremely high penetrating power. There seems to be no tendency whatever for fragments of the bullet to break or tear off in the barrel; and neither is there any appreciable wear on the barrel rifilng. Such zinc bullets can be made from commercial zinc rod without annealing, whereas other materials, such as copper, require very thorough annealing and even when completely annealed require extremely high pressures for swaging. Further, the resulting copper bullets, when loaded into otherwise identical cartridges and fired from the same guns, develop higher pressures, have a much lower velocity, and rapidly wear out the barrel. The comparative pressures and velocities of ordinary metal point, zinc, and copper bullets, are

as follows:

Zinc bullets have about greater penetrating power than the corresponding metal cased or metal pointed bullets. A standard penetration test consists in firing the bullets at a target consistpenetrated two plates and two boards and broke an opening through the third plate.

The application of the invention to hunting cartridges produces the long desired result of a bullet which both mushrooms and penetrates.

For this purpose it is desirable to form a recess in the nose of the zinc body, which recess is filled or partly filled with a softer metal such as lead or a lead alloy. One form of such bullet is illustrated in section in Fig. 3, l being the zinc body and ii the soft metal core, which core projects from its recess to form a soft nose the surface of which is a continuation of the surface of the zinc body. Alternatively, the bullet may be made offl the hollow point type, the core metal not en tirely filling the recess but leaving an unfilled portion adjacent the tip, as illustrated in Fig. 4. Such bullets have been found'to possess very satisfactory mushrooming properties, thus furnishing an extraordinary combination of high penetration and excellent mushrooming. Abullet of the type shown in Fig. 3. mushroomed by impact with a target, is illustrated in Fig. 5. The bullet is shown as it actually lays in the pine board target, the core portion l3 being separated slightly from the zinc body it.

It will be obvious that the bullet may have any desired exterior configuration and that if a lead core is provided this, "core may have a variety of shapes and sizes other than those illustrated. The invention is of broad scope. and the appended claims are to be broadly construed.

What is claimed is:

1. A projectile comprising an unjacketed zinc body containing a relatively small core of a soft metal.

2. A projectile comprising an unjacketed zinc body having a longitudinal recess therein, and a plug of soft metal in said recess and projecting therefrom to form the nose of the projectile.

3. A symmetrical and accurately shaped projectile for rified' firearms consisting substantially entirely of zinc and having a zinc surface for engagement'with the bore of a firearm in which the projectile is fired. 

